Lost City of the Incas - Machu Picchu, Peru
Machu Picchu, Peru
Machu Picchu today :-)
Wake-up call at 3.30am but no coca tea today. Bread and tea for breakfast in the dining tent then it was off to queue at the national park entrance just outside the camp before the 5.30am opening. Once it opened the walk from the entrance to the Sun Gate was enchanting. As the day broke over the valley it felt as if we were walking on the clouds. We could see and here the Urubamba River thousands of feet below us and caught glimpses of the lights from Aguas Calientes through the mist. I think this was my favourite part of the trip. As we'd been waiting for the entrance to open I'd literally had butterflies in my stomach. I don't think it was the excitement of seeing Machu Picchu though, although I was obviously looking forward to that, but more the sense of achievement I knew I'd feel on completing the Inca Trail. Also, there's always something satisfying about getting up early enough to see the sun rise; you feel as if you've really earned the right to a good day.
After an almost vertical climb that necessitated getting on hands and knees we arrived at the Sun Gate, or Inti Punku, for our first glimpse of Machu Picchu itself. And it was just a glimpse as the clouds covered most of the ridge that the city sits on and Huayna Picchu, the mountain behind the city in the classic photo, was completely obscured. With no people around at that early hour and only parts of the buildings peering out of the mist it gave the whole place the feel of a ghost town. Which, effectively, is what it became after the Incas left.
As we walked along the terraces of the agricultural sector the cloud slowly lifted, revealing more and more of the city and surrounding landscape. Renzo met us halfway down the path and his first words on seeing me were 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious', thus proving he'd successfully learned how to say it. We carried on to the ticket entrance itself to have a snack and some tea. By way of thanks I bought our three guides a cup of coffee.
David, the lead guide, then gave us a guided tour of the city much to the chagrin of the rest of the group who seemed to want to just continue complaining about the weather. Highlights included the Sun Temple, or 'Torreon', with its perfectly smooth walls build of huge carved granite stones. There was also the sonic room, which has alcoves at either end that bounce sound between one another and meant you could speak to someone on the opposite side of the room. Underneath the Torreon was the royal mausoleum with some early 20th century graffiti.
After saying goodbye to the guides at the end of the tour we had some time to explore the city by ourselves. We wandered at random, which was unusual for me as I like having my map nearby. We found the hitching post of the sun, the highest point in the complex; the sacred rock, which looks like the peaks of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu in profile; and, the sacrificial rock, which looks like a rock. We walked up to the Watchmen's Hut, which is where you get the classic view of the site. By then the clouds had cleared enough for us to have excellent views of the city laid out along the razorback ridge that is slung between Machu Picchu mountain behind us and Huayna Picchu mountain in the distance. We carried on further up to look for the Inca Bridge but on getting to the top of the hill we found out there was still another 20 minute walk to the bridge! We decided to give it a miss due to being short of time and instead headed back down to the main entrance where we bought Christmas tree decorations at the gift shop.
Visiting Machu Picchu I had exactly the same l feeling I had at the Taj Mahal. It felt surreal to actually be somewhere so famous, so talked about and, in particular, so photographed that it almost felt unreal. Standing next to the Watchmen's Hut and looking down at the city, a view that I've seen on countless websites, guidebooks and postcards, was almost confusing for my mind; seeing something I've seen many times before for the first time. I often wonder if the feeling is what you'd have if you met someone incredibly famous.
We caught the bus down to Aguas Calientes for lunch of fajitas and Inca Kola at 'Hot Springs Two' restaurant. After lunch there was just enough time to explore the town quickly, getting some shots of the train track that runs right through the middle of it, and buying some more souvenirs from the plethora of gift shops around town. We then had to catch the train back to Ollantaytambo but whilst the views were nice enough from the window seat I had they couldn't really compare with those on the Inca Trail. What's more I was in a separate carriage to the rest of our group and while I thought this would be a blessing at first, I ended up near another group who were even more boisterous and obnoxious. We changed at Ollantaytambo into a minibus for the journey back to Cusco, stopping only to take some shots of the sun setting over the mountains. Back in Cusco we went for dinner on our own at Los Perros, where I had a hamburger as big as my head an another delicious mint smoothie. Collapsed into bed at 9.30 for a night of much anticipated sleep.